Candy pink uniforms

Our bus pulls up to the Zamtan school in the barren Zambian Copper Belt, and the children pour out of the humble building, each student in a candy pink school shirt — the color as rich and bright as the curiosity of the child wearing it.  They want to sing and wave and clap — any commotion they can make to signal their gratitude.

"Hi, how are you?,” they ask us.  A little bit of staccato English filled with a desire to connect. We answer, "I'm fine, how are you?" and are met with giggles and bashful downward glances.  "I'm fine,"  they say.  Back up come the eyes and the smiles and the waves, gesturing "Look at me! Look at me!"

Look at them, indeed. Young, precious children full of nothing but hope and potential and a desire to be whole. How beautiful to be so pure.  How deserving of a world where they can say, "I'm fine" and mean it.


                                                          Reported by Michael Lewis